A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



It is strange that none of the Eton historians 

 have noticed that the origin of ' Montem ' is to 

 be found in ' Hills ' at Winchester ; but what at 

 Winchester was a living and daily habit up to 1850 

 at least, had at Eton, by the days of Elizabeth, 

 already sunk into an annual ceremonial, with the 

 usual mediaeval initiation of freshmen, conducted 

 with salt water, much as the initiation of those who 

 first cross the line is conducted on ship-board to- 

 day. ' Hills ' at Winchester is St. Katharine's 

 Hill, a rounded peninsular hill, where the long 

 line of the chalk downs is broken off by the 

 water meadows of the Itchen. It is a grassy 

 hill some 300 ft. high, with a treble circumvalla- 

 tion round it near the top, and is now crowned 

 with a clump of beech and fir trees, said to have 

 been planted just before 1778 ; but that this 

 clump was no new thing, is shown by a picture 

 of the college in a book composed about 1460. 

 No contemporary account of what the boys 

 did on Hills is forthcoming until a century later, 

 in 1564, when Christopher Johnson, the head 

 master, in a ' theme ' preserved by one of his pupils, 

 complained of boys who ' shirk Hills in playtime 

 (' a montibus abesse aliquos cum luditur'), school 

 in school time, chapel in service time, and, still 

 worse, play in school, idle on Hills, and are noisy 

 in chapel.' Till 1850 or thereabouts, on the 

 morning of every whole school day, the whole 

 school marched two and two to the top of this 

 hill, where they broke rank and played games 

 according to the season, returning to college 

 when Domum was called by juniors told off for 

 the purpose, who circled the hill, shouting the 

 word till they met at Domum Cross. From 

 about 1850 to 1868 'Hills' had become bi- 

 weekly in the afternoon in winter and in the 

 evening in summer, and the boys stopped at the 

 bottom, not the top. It is now a function held 

 twice a year before breakfast at the beginning of 

 the Short Half, the winter, and Cloister Time, the 

 summer term. The origin of the daily walk to 

 ' Hills ' was perhaps religious, as there was at one 

 time a chapel of St. Katharine at the top, and in 

 1331 it is recorded that the prior of the cathedral 

 monastery received 'all oblations in the chapel of 

 St. Katharine on her feast (25 November), as well 

 by day as by night, and the station in it, and the 

 custody of the same from vespers on St. Katharine's 

 Eve to nightfall on the day after the feast.' Seeing 

 how closely Eton followed Winchester, the in- 

 ference is irresistible that Salt Hill had been 

 selected as the nearest, though certainly a very 

 inferior, substitute at Eton for St. Katharine's 

 Hill at Winchester, and that Eton boys had in 

 old times regularly resorted there to play. But 

 by the time of Henry VIII the ' playing-leasowe,' 

 the nearer part of the present playing-fields, was 

 used as a playground, and was so much more 

 convenient that the daily march ad montem had 

 been superseded. But for the sake of old custom, 

 and perhaps in connexion with the ending of the 



boy-bishop's reign, which at York, and no doubt 

 elsewhere, lasted till the end of January, an 

 annual march was celebrated in its place. The 

 fact that ' Hills ' at Winchester now only survives 

 much in the same way as ' Montem ' survived at 

 Eton in Elizabeth's day, viz. in a march out of 

 the whole school at the beginning of the sum- 

 mer and autumn terms, in memoriam, greatly 

 strengthens the argument for attributing the 

 origin of ' Montem ' to an imitation of ' Hills.' 



By the i8th century the Eton ' Montem ' had 

 ceased to be a solemn initiatory ceremony with 

 literary exercises, and had come to be a sham 

 military march, the military element having been 

 suggested probably by Malim's use of military 

 metaphors in his account of it. In 1712 salt 

 was given, not to the boys, but to the passer-by, 

 who was made to pay for it, and the money 

 collected was given to the captain of college, to 

 furnish him forth for King's. 



When boys at Eton once a year 



In military pomp appear, 



He who just trembled at the rod 



Treads it a heroe, stalks a god, 



And in an instant can create 



A dozen officers of state. 



His little legion all assail, 



Arrest without release or bail ; 



Each passing traveller must halt, 



Must pay the tax and eat the salt. 



' You don't love salt ' you say, and storm : 



' Look o' these staves, sir, and conform.' 



By the middle of the 1 8th century ' Montem ' 

 had further sunk into a triennial performance. In 

 1759 the day was changed to the Tuesday in 

 Whitsun week, thus transforming what was the 

 end of the winter ' saturnalia ' into a summer 

 show. The dresses became more and more 

 gorgeous, the collections larger and larger. The 

 salt was exchanged for tickets bestowed on those 

 who had been mulcted. George III was regu- 

 larly present at it, and it became a fashion- 

 able spectacle. In 1784 451 was collected, 

 and the captain cleared ,246 ; in 1841 ^1,269 

 was raised, and the net profit was some 800. 

 At that time an orgy at the public-house by 

 Salt Hill was followed by a foray on the garden, 

 cabbages and rose trees falling victims to the 

 swords of the officers. The opening of the 

 Great Western Railway in 1841 effectually 

 vulgarized the spectacle and demoralized the 

 boys ; and in 1847 ' Montem ' was abolished, the 

 head master, Dr. Hawtrey, giving 200 to the 

 captain of college in compensation for loss of 

 perquisites. 



In spite of the humorous turn which Malim 

 gives to his account of Eton customs, he seems 

 to have been as harsh a disciplinarian as any of 

 his predecessors ; for it was his flogging which 

 drove some boys to run away from Eton, and 

 thereby gave occasion to one of the earliest 



192 



